Josh Falcone – General Assignment Reporter
Ten members of the Southern Connecticut State University gymnastics team have qualified for the 2014 USA Gymnastics Collegiate National Championships.
The ten members of the team who will be competing include seniors Brianna Ecklof and Gabriella Hude, juniors Meghan Cole, Jenny Kaufman, Samantha Menichini and Chelcie Rosoborough, sophomores Rachel de la Torre, Nicole Pruchnik, and Jennifer Rochefort, and freshman Rotem Porat.
Gymnastics coach Jerry Nelson said the fact that half of the gymnastics team qualified individually for Nationals is quite remarkable and shows how comfortable the Owls feel when competing against Division I opponents.
“I think having half of our team qualify as individuals shows the kind of depth we have,” Nelson said, “especially within the first half of our lineup and how well we do compete against an array of Division I’s.”
Pruchnik said that qualifying for the USAG Collegiate Nationals is a thrilling experience.
“It is exciting, it’s fun to go back again,” she said.
Hude agreed with that sentiment and said the members who qualified also feel like a sense of achievement.
“It is exciting and I think we all feel accomplished,” Hude said.
De la Torre said that the goal once a team member qualifies multiple times, is to surpass what they did their previous appearances.
“You always want to do better than you did last year,” she said.
Porat, who will be competing in her first USAG Collegiate National Championships, said she feels fortunate to have qualified and that the effort she has put in this season has paid off.
“I feel honored and blessed,” Porat said. “I am happy I made it, I worked hard, put in a lot of hours. Hard work pays off.”
Once the team members begin competing in Providence, RI on April 11, Cole will be competing in the All-Around. Pruchnik will be competing on the vault, beam and the floor exercise. Menichini and Kaufman will compete on the floor exercise as well as the vault. Ecklof and Rosobourgh will be competing on the floor exercise. Rochefort, de la Torre, and Hude will all be participating on the uneven bars. Porat will be competing on the beam.
In the Owls last competition at the University of Pennsylvania, Pruchnik took the top spot finish on both the floor exercise with a 9.8 and the balance beam with a 9.75.
In a five-team meet early last month at Rutgers University, de la Torre had the team high mark on the uneven bars with a 9.725.
Pruchnik said the mentality going into the USAG Collegiate National Championships is identical to every other competition she has taken part in.
“It’s the same thing as every meet,” Pruchnik said, “because there is always the chance you could compete the second day in event finals but you never know. So on the first night you just give it everything you have got.”
Hude said it is important when competing for the team members to give it everything they have got.
“You just want to leave it all out there,” she said.
According to de la Torre, the USAG Collegiate Nationals is the finale of the individual’s season and is important for them to go out there and give the best performance they can but also to take joy in the event.
“It’s just kind of a culmination of your season,” she said, “ so you just go out and have fun, just give it all you got, just nothing to lose, you know?”
Nelson said that the members of the team that will be competing in the USAG Collegiate National Championships just need to keep doing what they have done that has gotten them as far as getting the chance to compete in the championships.
“They just need to do what they practice, to not let the pressure of Nationals get in the way of their ability to perform as they have been doing all year,” Nelson said. “They got there by performing well so they just need to do that and they are National level athletes and this is the perfect stage to prove that.”
